Film
Mike Birbiglia: The New One
Filmed on Broadway, this is Birbiglia at his most disciplined: a single hour-plus monologue about the years he spent resisting fatherhood, the surgery that nearly killed him, and the baby who arrived anyway. It's structured like a magic trick — jokes you don't realize are set-ups until the ending lands. Funny throughout, but built for a gut-punch, not just laughs.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like personal stand-up that builds a whole life story out of small embarrassing moments, and you enjoy the craft of a comedian who hides careful structure under a loose, confessional voice.
Skip it if you want variety or a bit of pace, since it is one man on a stage for eighty-five minutes, and its sincere stretches slow the laughs.
What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and a half of unbroken attention to a single speaker, with the mood shifting from giddy to raw and back again.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City2018
Mulaney's precision-engineered bits share Birbiglia's love of the long callback and the perfectly timed reveal. Same craftsmanship, different subject: showbiz absurdity instead of impending fatherhood.
But Slicker and colder than Birbiglia — less vulnerability, more clockwork joke construction.
Ali Wong: Baby Cobra2016
Ali Wong, seven months pregnant, tears into childbirth and marriage with a filthiness Birbiglia never attempts. The subject overlaps exactly; the tone is the opposite extreme.
But Much raunchier and more aggressive — if you liked Birbiglia's gentleness, this will feel like a different species.
Mustang2015
Jim Gaffigan's whole career is dad comedy, and this is his warmest hour on kids, exhaustion, and domestic chaos — cozy where Birbiglia gets existential.
But Safer and broader; it never digs for the darker feelings Birbiglia lets himself sit with.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mike Birbiglia: The New One
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Swimming to Cambodia1987
This is the direct ancestor of Birbiglia's form: one person, a chair, and a true story turned into theatre on film, decades before it had a Netflix name.
Spalding Gray, alone at a table, invented the filmed solo-monologue genre Birbiglia works in — restless, digressive, building an entire world out of one voice talking.
But No staging, no jokes-per-minute pacing — it's slower, stranger, and asks patience a comedy special doesn't.
More like this (8)
Bo Burnham: Make Happy2016
Bo Burnham breaks the standup form itself, turning a special into something closer to theatre — the same instinct that pushes Birbiglia's storytelling past ordinary comedy.
But More anxious and abstract, with musical numbers replacing anecdotes — a different kind of showmanship.
Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted2015
Tig Notaro turns personal catastrophe into comedy with the same unflinching honesty Birbiglia brings to his own body failing him.
But Rawer and stranger in places — Notaro's delivery is flatter, and the vulnerability is even more exposed.
Chris Gethard: Career Suicide2017
Chris Gethard's HBO special is a one-man show about depression and near-death, structured with the same care Birbiglia gives his own medical scares.
But Heavier and less consistently funny — this leans further into therapy-session territory.
John Leguizamo: Freak1998
John Leguizamo's filmed Broadway solo show is a direct ancestor of what Birbiglia does — one performer, one life, staged like a play.
But Faster, angrier, and more theatrical in delivery; it's less intimate and more of a performance.
Annihilation2018
Patton Oswalt processes his wife's sudden death through standup, showing how far this form can carry real grief — the same trust Birbiglia asks of his audience.
But Considerably darker and sadder throughout; laughs are sparser and harder-won.
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette2018
Hannah Gadsby dismantles the standup format entirely to talk about trauma, proving a comedy special can become something else without losing you.
But By design it stops being funny halfway through — a deliberate, unsettling shift some viewers find alienating.
Big Mouth2017
Same obsession — the body as source of comedy and dread, and parenthood looming as both promise and threat — reframed as gross-out animation instead of confession.
An animated series about puberty, bodies betraying you, and parental anxiety — the same neurotic honesty as Birbiglia's monologue, just filthier and drawn in cartoon form.
But Crude, sexually explicit, and loud where Birbiglia is quiet — a genuinely different register entirely.
Won't You Be My Neighbor?2018
Both are ultimately about deciding to show up for a child; one gets there through comic resistance, the other through a man who never doubted it.
A documentary portrait of Fred Rogers, built entirely around what it means to nurture someone else without irony — the sincere flip side of Birbiglia's reluctant, joke-armored path to fatherhood.
But Completely earnest, with almost no comedy — a tonal 180 that may feel jarring right after a standup special.
People
Cast
Mike BirbigliaSelf
Directing
- Seth BarrishDirector
Writing
- Mike BirbigliaWriter
Production
- Ira GlassExecutive Producer
- Joe BirbigliaExecutive Producer
Recommended by
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, Maria Bamford: Old Baby, Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted